A no-hitter game is a boon to those who throw it. But this season, she has acted as a curse for a couple of their teams. How is that possible? Let’s explain right away and read very well carefully.
On May 5 in Seattle, the left-handed pitcher of the Orioles, John Means, he pitched Baltimore’s first singles no-hitter since 1969. Since then, Means’ club has lost 19 straight road games, the last in Cleveland on Thursday afternoon, when the O’s suffered their sixth consecutive series wreck. of roads:
That was one of six official no-hitters released as early as 2021, but don’t forget that the left-hander veteran of the D-backs, Madison Bumgarner, also posted a no-no in seven innings as part of a doubleheader in Atlanta on April 25. you do not know? Arizona hasn’t won a game away from Chase Field since then, dropping its staggering 23rd in a row Thursday afternoon in San Francisco.
Those numbers are terrifying on their own, and the historical context doesn’t help. The D-backs became the first team in the Modern Era (since 1900) to have a losing streak on the road for so long. They went on to the 1963 Mets and the ’43 Philadelphia Athletics, who had 22-game streaks.
But even the Orioles’ 19 straight losses on the road are extremely rare. Only six Modern Era teams had made it before this year, and none since the Pirates of 1985.
In other words, for 35 years (1986-2020), no team lost 19 consecutive away games. Now two teams have done it in the first two and a half months of 2021, and both had that unfortunate streak right after the excitement and glory of throwing a no-hitter:
So what about that curse? Are the Gods of Baseball suddenly hitting some team with the recklessness to make a no-no at another team’s home stadium?
It is not that simple or that silly, of course. While the baseball world has always loved his curses, whether brought on by the Big Bambino or a mere billy goat, there are some serious plot holes to be aware of here.
The Padres (Joe Musgrove, April 9, in Texas), Reds (Wade Miley, May 7, in Cleveland), Tigers (Spencer Turnbull, May 18, in Seattle) and Yankees (Corey Kluber, May 19, in Texas) also have no-hitters on the road this season. All four teams also won their next away game or the next. So no losing streaks can be found.
Then there’s the fact that we’ve also seen a remarkably long third losing streak this season. That belonged to the Rangers, who lost 16 games in a row between May 10 and June 11, before winning at Dodger Stadium last Saturday. (His is the third longest streak since 2011.) But while the Rangers have had two no-hitters or a run-down in 2021, they haven’t thrown a no-no, let alone in-game before the losing streak began.
It may interest you: Yankees Record Predicts Failure for Jameson Taillon, Will He Break the Curse?
So no, there may not be a curse in play. But it’s certainly a strange coincidence, even in the peculiar realm of baseball.
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